County governments are to blame for tire piles and the fire and health risks they present, a state legislator says.
Rep. David Ostler, R-Salt Lake, said Monday if counties outlawed the storage and dumping of automobile tires, more would be recycled and disposed of properly. He is proposing a bill for the next legislative session.Ostler cited this week's massive tire fire in Tooele County as a perfect example of why tire piles should not be allowed. The fire, believed to be arson-caused, has been burning since Sunday in a pile of more than 1 million tires near Grants-ville.
Ostler was the House sponsor of the bill that two years ago created a state fund set up specifically for recycling Utah's automobile tires.
The fund, which draws $1 to $2 from each new tire purchased, has grown to $3 million. But state officials say only $50,000 has been paid out, most to the state's only tire recycler, Ecology Recovery Systems of Salt Lake City.
State officials estimate 40 tons of tires per day are disposed of in one way or another.
"We can interrupt the tire waste system today if counties would just say, `Hey, you can't dump your tires in our county,' " he said. "That would push all tires to a recycler. We should not be having a single tire go to a tire pile."
It costs 2 to 5 cents for commercial haulers to "store" a discarded tire for possible recycling later. In contrast, it costs 15 cents per tire for haulers to have them recycled. Ostler said that disparity makes storing tires the more attractive option to haulers.
Jack Galanis, president of Ecology Recovery Systems, said his company has the capacity to recycle many more tires.
Galanis said shredded tire chips are sold to Ideal Basic Industries Cement Division of Morgan, where they are used as fuel along with coal to make cement.
"We do 30 tons a day, but we could be doing 60 tons a day," he said. "We need the counties to enforce rules and regulations not allowing the dumping of tires just anywhere. That would make all the tires come to a recycler.
Ralph Bohn, state solid waste section manager, said county health departments are responsible for drawing on the state recycling fund to compensate recyclers for each ton of tires recycled.
"We're not seeing nearly as much recycling of tires as we would like," he said. "Tires take up a lot of space, and people don't want thousands of tires hanging around. And mosquitoes like to breed in tires and that can be a health risk."
Lloyd Barney, Weber County landfill director of waste disposal, said his county made wholesale changes in policy after a major tire fire in 1986 that burned for nearly a week, filling the sky with thick, black smoke.
"We haven't stockpiled tires at our landfill since that fire," he said. "We have a recycler pick our tires up two to three times a week so we never have too many sitting at one time."
Bohn said if the counties want the piles cleaned up, owners of the land the tires are on will have to foot the bill for moving them, whether they put them there or not.